Postgraduate Module Descriptor

POLM152: Post-Conflict Human Rights and Transitional Justice

This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.

Module Aims

The module aims to provide a conceptual and analytical framework with which to understand the link between peace building and human rights in post-conflict contexts, primarily through developing a critical understanding of transitional justice. you will develop a strong theoretical and conceptual understanding of transitional justice, including its different elements such as truth seeking, justice, accountability and non-recurrence. Drawing from an array of inter-disciplinary literature, you will critically evaluate the different approaches to transitional justice and assess its role vis-à-vis strengthening human rights and peace building in the aftermath of armed conflict. You will strengthen your understanding of the practicalities of transitional justice in post-conflict contexts through engagement with selected empirical case studies from different regions and innovative teaching, including multi-media and direct engagement with field experts. The course offers an opportunity to understand post-conflict dynamics, and to assess the legitimacy and effectiveness of transitional justice.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here - you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills	1. Demonstrate conceptual and theoretical understanding of transitional justice with capability to critically evaluate the effectiveness of its varying approaches. 2. Demonstrate critical understanding of the peace-rights-justice nexus in post-conflict contexts and the role of transitional justice in these contexts. 3. Differentiate between theoretical analysis and the practical realities of transitional justice, through a focus on specific case studies,.
Discipline-Specific Skills	4. Demonstrate advanced analytical understanding of the significance of issues of transitional justice and human rights within peace and conflict studies. 5. Develop a critical understanding of the field of conflict resolution and post-conflict reconstruction, including the role of international actors.
Personal and Key Skills	6. Independently research, critically evaluate and analyse inter-disciplinary literature. 7. Make rigorous and persuasive arguments and convey them coherently, analytically and convincingly verbally and in writing. 8. Develop policy analysis skills through combining academic and theoretical work with case studies and expert interviews.

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:

The role of human rights in armed conflict
The nature of violations during and after conflict
Theoretical conceptualisation of transitional justice
Truth seeking
Retributive justice
Restorative justice
Reconciliation
Gender justice
A holistic approach to transitional justice
Bottom up or top down?
Evaluating transitional justice

Learning and Teaching

This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
22	278

...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	22	(11 x 2hrs) Combined lecture and seminar, exploring topic further through discussion and debate. Seminars will include group presentations, multi-media clips and skype interviews with field experts.
Guided Independent Study	78	Weekly mandatory reading
Guided Independent Study	200	Essay and presentation preparation

Online Resources

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).